“I’ve warned you, right? About being so nice to me.”
He smiled, and her heart turned over. “I guess I’m a slow learner.”
The look built between them, becoming powerful enough that Iris almost, almost closed the distance. What she would’ve done, she had no idea. Just as well that he ended the moment by turning away. Eli knocked on Henry Dale’s door while Iris called Mira down.
“We’re having hash?” Henry Dale asked with a dubious look.
“Picadillo,” Eli corrected. “We have tortillas if you’d rather eat it that way. I didn’t make rice. I usually put it on tostadas.”
“This looks delicious,” Mira said.
Iris bit her lip as a worrisome thought occurred to her. “You do eat meat? Sorry, we should have asked.”
“Yep, I’m an omnivore. I don’t know if it’s related to the type of magic vivimancers use, but they’re more likely to be vegan,” Mira said, taking her seat.
“Interesting,” Eli said.
Henry Dale eyed the food, but he followed Eli’s example and put a spoon of picadillo on the tostada, then topped it with a drizzle of cream and a swirl of hot sauce. He took his first bite and smiled. “This is darn tasty.”
Iris was too busy enjoying her own tostada to say much, so she let the others carry the conversation. She wondered if Eli spoke Spanish. If his mom died when he was six, he might have lost the language and all ties to that side of his family. That struck her as sad.
Maybe I could help him get in touch…if he even wants that.
* * *
After dinner, Eli allowed himself to be shooed away from the sink by Henry Dale.
The old man had an unshakable work ethic, and as he put it, “If I ate your food without bestirring myself, then I wash up. Nonnegotiable.”
Mira stood, rubbing her stomach with a satisfied smile. “I think I’m going to like it here. You fed me, and now I’m not doing the dishes.”
“It’s your first day,” Eli said gently. “Get settled in.”
Iris added, “We already talked about it, and you have first pick for the bathroom since you have to be at work.”
“I always shower at five,” said Henry Dale.
Mira blinked. “Eh, I don’t need to be up that early. Seven will be fine.”
“We can talk about the rest later. But if you run into annoyances, let’s talk about them before they become resentments,” Iris said.
Eli smiled. That was just like her, really.
“Are you sure you make jewelry?” Mira joked.
“Oh? Why?” Iris asked.
Mira said, “Because you seem like you’d be an awesome therapist.”
Iris laughed. “Well, maybe I have the temperament for it, but I couldn’t get through all the schooling.”
Henry Dale glanced over his shoulder as he soaped up the plates. “That’s nothing to be ashamed of. College isn’t for everyone. I never went.”
“I graduated with a degree in nonprofit management,” Mira said. “And I have the debt to prove it.”
As he put the last of the leftovers in the fridge, Eli realized everyone was looking at him. “Oh, my turn?”
“Unless you’d rather not.” Iris always tried to put him at ease, never pushing him.
“I majored in app development.” He didn’t say anything about debt, as he’d paid that off after he sold his senior project. Most of his classmates had gone to work for someone else, but he’d gotten lucky.
“So flipping houses is a side hustle?” Iris asked.
“Whoa, you flip houses and develop apps?” Mira looked so impressed that he didn’t have the heart to tell them that Gamma’s house was the first and only.
Unless you count this place. There wouldn’t be any flipping, however, unless Iris tapped out because of Susan’s nonsense. Theoretically, he supposed it was possible that she’d sell after he, Henry Dale, and Mira put the shine back in the old house. Now that Eli had some experience with renovations and updates, he might turn his attention to the Myrtle Beach cottage he owned. It was a sunshine-yellow haven two miles from the ocean, nothing special, but he’d gotten a great deal, and he might fix it up someday.
But the idea of doing that alone sent a spike of loneliness straight through his heart. He couldn’t tell anyone about his condo or the Myrtle Beach cottage—at least not without revealing the fact that he’d moved in under false pretenses. The idea of losing all the connections he’d formed made him break out in a cold sweat, clutching the edge of the table with desperate hands.
“Usually just the app thing,” Eli said, realizing they were all waiting for him to respond to Mira’s compliment.
“If you make a profit on the house you’re flipping, will you look for your next project?” Iris wanted to know.
Now was the time to tell her that he’d met her before. Go ahead, make it casual. Something like, “Hey, funny story, I finally remembered where I know you from, Iris…”
Instead, he only got out, “I don’t think so.”
“A pity,” Henry Dale said. “I’d have been willing to look at properties with you, give you an expert opinion on which places have the best bones.”
“That’s such a weird saying,” Mira noted.
Iris pretended to shiver. “I prefer my houses without bones.”
“Let me do the dishes in peace, you smart alecks.” Henry Dale waved the dish towel at them, and Eli slipped out while the women teased the older man.
I have to get away.
From his guilty thoughts, from fear that he’d end up hurting Iris, even with good intentions. Since it wasn’t raining, he needed to fly. Barely keeping his shit together, he ran upstairs and locked his door, undressed, and opened his window. Out into the night, hawk form borne aloft on the crisp autumn breeze. He glimpsed a bonfire several streets over, mice skittering from house to house, and cats prowling after them. Night was alive, and he drank it in as he flew, silently observing St. Claire from his great height.
Oddly, while it felt incredible to stretch his wings, he didn’t bask in the solitude as he once had. Before, he’d taken comfort in being alone and above it all. No tethers holding him to the earth, apart from Gamma, and she was living it up in Albuquerque. Though they talked fairly often, Liz didn’t fully count since she straddled the line between colleague and friend. Yet he was the one who’d never let her close the distance. He shut people down when they showed too much interest, firming up his walls brick by brick.
Everyone except Iris. She was always the exception to his rules.
Without realizing it, he flew the whole perimeter of town and back again until he found himself circling above the house. Thoughtful now, his wings pulsing with a gentle ache, he perched on the edge of the roof, gazing up at the indistinct stars. It wouldn’t take an expert to identify why he preferred to be alone; it was safer. Easier.
Because people left. It didn’t matter how much he wished otherwise. Endings were inevitable, and he survived by avoiding those moments. He’d become successful, but he was still alone. And then he heard her, moving about in her room beneath the eaves.
I’m not alone. Not unless I choose to be.